Bone Claw Lullaby
by hobbitsdoitbetter
Summary: Blood. Bone. Adamantium. The things that make up Logan. The things Marie knows can be taken away. But when the worst seemingly happens, how will she survive it? And who is the man her Wolverine will become? Dark, angsty, Rogan. Heed the rating, people.


_Disclaimer: This fan fiction is not written for profit and no infringement of copyright is uni_ _ntended. Unbeta-ed, so all mistakes are mine. I was watching the trailer for Logan and I thought I'd go through some of my old x-men stories; not sure if I'll finish this one. Still, I hope you enjoy it._

* * *

 **CHAPTER ONE: BONE**

* * *

 _It was raining silver._

 _At least, Rogue thought disjointedly, that's what it looked like._

 _The heavens had torn open, lightning slitting and slashing the sky like a knife. L_ _iquid beating down on her bruised face, on her bleeding feet. On her shoulders, there_ _where they shivered underneath the blanket Jubes had hastily thrown over her as she_ _dragged her out into the night. All around her there was chaos, mud and water and_ _violence howling like a hurricane. The screams of the dying and the roar of battle_ _merging together in the air like some keening, desperate fog. Marie could feel the weight_ _of the shackles at her feet pulling at her. Could sense the dirt and muck dragging her_ _under as she forced herself further down the hill. Jubes was yelling something over her_ _ear-piece though she couldn't make it out above the storm's howling: Rogue wasn't sure_ _what the chica was saying but judging by the expression on her face it wasn't anything_ _good. With one final, massive effort she and the firecracker skittered to a messy, sodden_ _halt a couple of steps away from the Blackbird. Knees finally giving out from under them,_ _breaths coming in terrible, aching pants._

" _Get up," Jubes hissed in her ear, her voice hoarse from shouting. She was_ _looking over Rogue's shoulder, her eyes fixed to the perimeter they'd just broken through-_

 _The perimeter Logan had said he'd seal._

" _We gotta haul ass," she was muttering, "We gotta go back and get Wolvie-"_

" _Ah know," Marie yelled. "You think Ah don't know that? Ah just-"_

 _And she tried to force herself to stand though nothing happened. Tried again and_ _this time ended up ankle-deep in the freezing mud, her teeth chattering as the icy sludge_ _spattered against her skin. Lensherr had had her for nearly a month and in that time he'd_ _done all he could to break her; Logan hadn't had time to dose her with his healing before_ _he ordered her and Jubes to hit the road as he covered their escape._

 _She might as well have been a sitting duck._

 _Seeing her failure Jubilee muttered an impressively long string of cuss words and hauled her to her feet, her smaller frame struggling under the weight as she gritted her teeth and steadied her. A string of paffs bursting into existence ahead of them to keep their path to the Blackbird clear._

" _You are so buying me a drink after this, girl," Jubes muttered. "A really big one- With an umbrella-"_

" _You get me outta this, fire-cracker," Rogue croaked, "and Ah'll buy you a_ _Goddamn bar."_

 _And with a final, near-hysterical laugh she and Jubes finally made it to the Bird,_ _Marie sending up a silent prayer of thanks as someone- she suspected Kitty- lowered the_ _gang-plank to let them in. Jubes was screaming something that sounded a lot like, "Our girl's_ _home, Logan," into her ear-piece, "now get the Hell outta Dodge-"_

 _Hank was already halfway down the ramp, med-kit in one hand, torch in the other. His Kevlar-enhanced suit was buttoned up tight against the cold, his yellow eyes narrowed as he checked her and Jubes for injuries like he could see through their clothing right to the underlying muscle and bone. He tssked at their state as he took Rogue's weight from Jubes, pulling her more fully into his warmth, picking her up like she weighed nothing._

" _You're safe, Rogue," he said, "It's alright, you can let go now…Erik won't hurt_ _you anymore…"_

 _Marie sagged, limbs drooping, ready to pass out from joy and relief and sheer,_ _soul-crushing exhaustion… Every night she'd been in Lensherr's compound she'd_ _dreamed of this, all they had to do now was go back and get Wolverine…_

 _And that was when she heard it._

 _When she heard the screaming._

 _It was also- coincidentally- the moment when she realised that the liquid she was_ _covered in was neither mud nor rain._

 _No. This was something else._

 _Hank must have realised the moment he saw her start, because his face turned as_ _ashen as blue fur can do and despite the fact that he was holding her he tried to turn_ _away. His eyes closing in pain as she recognised the voice that was howling in agony. As_ _she realised that it belonged to Logan- That it_ _ **had to belong**_ _to Logan- That he was_ _screaming in unbearable pain and she had left him behind. **How could she have left him behind?** Time seemed to stop: For a __long moment Rogue merely stared at her skin beneath the Blackbird's landing lights, her_ _eyes unable to process what she was seeing. The patterns of red and silver and ivory as_ _abstract and beautiful as the camouflage on a butterfly's wing. As unbelievable as a_ _demonic visitation or the sight of so many angels dancing on the head of a pin._

 _But then-_

 _Then-_

 _With slow, horrifying inevitability her brain began to understand the sight before_ _her. Began putting it together like puzzle pieces, making a horrific pattern all its own._ _Red. Silver. Ivory. Blood. Adamantium._ _ **Bone-** But not hers. __They were everywhere: In her hair, on her_ _skin. In the breath that swarmed through her nostrils. On her tongue, where it had been_ _lashed with rain. In the creases between her fingers and toes._

 _Oh God, Oh God, Oh God,_ _no, she thought. Oh mah sweet Lord, please don't let this be real- This can't be real=_

 _But it was._

 _Metal glinted like silver-dust within the gore which caked her; Small, shard-like flecks of white bone jagged in the fiery moonlight and digging into her skin like shrapnel from a broken heart. Marie shook her head, denying the knowledge instinctively. Bloodied hands held out before her, replaying that last sight she'd had of Logan as he tore into Magneto and_ _snarled at Jubes to get her free. But he couldn't- Lensherr wouldn't- Nobody could do_ _that to Logan-_

 _She heard another scream, more feral than human, and in that moment Marie_ _knew without a doubt that Erik Lensherr had._

 _Cold against her back then. Hard seat beneath her._

 _Kitty was hollering words she couldn't make out, Hank taking over the controls as she and Jubes darted out of the jet and back into the rain._

 _Lightning slashed the sky again but this time Marie didn't see it; There were more screams- more words- more nonsense- but she understood them not at_ _all. Days or months or years might have passed and then they were in the air, a broken_ _doll that had once been a man splayed on the seat opposite her. Head lolled to the side,_ _skin slashed open everywhere. Bone claws hanging needlessly from his hands, obscene to_ _Marie without their metal covering. Without their evidence of who their owner had been._ _Sharp hazel eyes stared unseeingly at her until Hank pressed a palm over them and_ _stopped their useless sight. Until Storm took a blanket and covered him, the starched_ _white sheet quickly becoming mired in blood._

 _Marie curled in on herself, feeling her heartbeat, feeling the breaths she took. Feeling every ache- Every tremble-_

 _But she was hollow._

 ** _She was so hollow._**

 _Nothing and nobody would ever touch her again if the sight before her were real- It can't, she thought, it can't be real- I won't let it be real-_

* * *

There was a sudden crash of thunder and Rogue awoke with a jerk, her heart racing.

She stared at Logan's unconscious body, still laid out in his hospital bed after all these months, and just like always she felt her eyes scald with tears.

She felt as if her heart would break.


End file.
